F-35 will quickly be outdated‎

There's something I'm not buying about the F-35 "stealth" joint-strike fighter. Besides the government's dishonest bloviating and the opposition's peacenik whimpering, I mean. I just can't understand a plane meant to dominate aerial combat for five decades in a world of blinding technological change.

I do understand the need for air power. And for "interoperability" with our American ally, the free world's only remaining military hope even under Barack Obama. But I don't believe the F-35, after inevitable teething problems and cost increases, will dominate the skies for two generations. The world just isn't like that, and neither is this plane.

OK, we're currently flying CF-18s we bought in 1980 over destroyers we bought in 1972. And today's CF-18 is not the plane that began entering service in 1982; rather, the same reliable airframe has seen constant "avionics" and weapons upgrades. But the F-35 won't work that way for two main reasons.

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